Knife deaths at a record six a week

The number of people killed with knives has risen to a shocking six every week since Labour came to power.

The 322 fatal stabbings recorded by police last year is the highest number since records began in 1977, and up by almost 40 per cent in a decade.

Behind the stark statistics lie tales of human tragedy, with families left to grieve for lives cut short.

Victims: Ben Kinsella, left, and Robbie Knox, right, who were both stabbed to death in 2008

And increasingly, many of them are young lives. Among the victims this year were a promising 18-year-old actor and the 16-year-old brother of EastEnders star Brooke Kinsella.

The figures will heap even greater pressure on the Government to take tough action against knife yobs.

Today, ministers will respond by announcing supposedly 'tougher' punishments for carrying a knife - such as picking up litter, renovating community centres, clearing underand-growth and cleaning up graffiti.

But the move was immediately dismissed by the families of victims, who want mandatory jail terms for the crime.

Tragic: Shaquille Maitland-Smith, 14, was knifed in the stomach by a gang of youths

Colin Knox, whose son Robbie was stabbed to death in May this year, said: 'If you were a teenager thinking about carrying a knife what would make you think twice - a two-year prison sentence or 300 hours of community service in a high visibility jacket?

'A minimum jail term is the only thing that will work.'

Robbie, an 18-year-old actor, was stabbed to death outside a bar in Sidcup, Kent, as he tried to break up a fight.

One of the youngest victims was 14-year- old Shaquille Maitland-Smith, a promising pupil who was knifed in the stomach by a gang of youths while sitting on a bench outside his home in Hackney, East London, in June.

Miss Kinsella's brother Ben lost his life in June as he tried to run away from a fight in Islington, North London.

The toll of deaths is not due to be officially published until next year.

But the Tories uncovered the statistics using Freedom of Information requests to individual police forces.

Some 45 of the fatal stabbings were in Scotland.

The other 277 recorded by police in England and Wales in 2007/08 compares to 135 in 1977. The total has increased by 38 per cent since Labour came to power.

In 1998/99, there were 201 knife killings.

The average number of deaths over the last decade has been 241 a year, compared to 203 in the years 1988 to 1997, when the Tories were in power.

In the last year alone fatal stabbings recorded by the Metropolitan Police increased by a quarter, from 68 to 86. Stabbings recorded by both West Yorkshire and Northumbria police last year increased from ten to 15 in each force.

The number recorded in Lancashire trebled, from four in 2006-07 to 13 in 2007-08.

It comes less than a month after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had to apologise for the early publication of 'selective', spun statistics which appeared to show knife crime being brought under control.

Tory home affairs spokesman James Brokenshire, who uncovered the statistics, said: 'Knife crime is a scourge which claims too many lives and ruins countless others. Yet under Labour it has soared.

'As well as deploying our police on to the streets as the norm, we would introduce an automatic presumption of jail for knife possession.

'We must also address the underlying causes of crime - such as drugs, family breakdown and gang culture.'